


silence in suburbia

by BlackCats



Category: Dangan Ronpa
Genre: F/M, Gift Fic, Post-DR1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-17
Updated: 2014-11-17
Packaged: 2018-02-25 15:28:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 956
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2626757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackCats/pseuds/BlackCats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hope is an uplifting thing. He's someone unafraid of falling.<br/>(Kirigiri, Naegi, and the future.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	silence in suburbia

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sigrdrifa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sigrdrifa/gifts).



Before they search for signs of life, they search for shelter.

There’s a moment of panic on (mostly) everyone’s end as the state of the city is beheld, once the school is behind them and the unknown is in front of them, promising _freedom_ to the survivors if nothing else—for better or for worse. The mood is only exacerbated by Fukawa who cringes back from the state of a ruined book store; Kirigiri knows. She _knows_. She can understand.

But there’s no time for this, and she has no choice but steel her nerves and her heart against it all. It’s become second nature to her but in the best way possible—it’s okay, it’s _all right_ , because Makoto will provide the warmth and she’s already resolved to provide the chill. Both will be needed in equal parts out here, and it’s not in his nature to breathe words of cold logic at all.

(She supposes it’s a good thing, because she doesn’t think she’d love him if it was.)

Makoto’s a beacon of indomitable spirit, focusing on what’s _intact_ and what’s _there_ and the benefits of seeing sky and earth for the first time in a long time. When it rains, she sees him watch the bloodstains fade away in quiet contemplation, and when it shines, she sees him rub the earth until the green sprouts of plant-life have been coaxed from the soil.

She realizes his presence is large but subtle, composed of many small things that leave a great impact. It fits him, it fits him perfectly.

(She wonders when she started scrutinizing him so thoroughly. It’s hardly a recent occurrence.)

In the end, it’s Togami who finds the hotel they dwell in for a time. It’s a grand sight, still connected to the power grid, with the majority of the rooms in salvageable condition. The heir resides in the uppermost levels and looks down on them all, but somehow it’s more reassuring than anything else. They spend some time getting things in order, picking up food and supplies—she momentarily berates herself for not thinking to retrieve suitable items from the academy, but Asahina shrugs and cheerily tells her it’s probably better they got out before anything had a chance to trap them in again. She’s likely right, so she lets the point go.

She's halfway through assisting Hagakure in seeing what can be made in the kitchen when she notices that Makoto’s sneaked off someplace. It’s unusual behavior on his end, but at the very least, it doesn’t take long to find him.

He's on the roof. There’s smoke curling through the atmosphere, and the sun’s breaching the tip of a nearby skyscraper, resting like a golden crown upon the building and piercing the cloud layer with lances of light. He’s sitting with his back to the hotel’s adorning billboard, his expression caught somewhere between solemn and relaxed—Kirigiri opts to stand beside him instead of sitting, but he smiles up at her anyway.

For a moment it’s as if they’re the last two people on earth. Silence reigns in suburbia simply because there’s no one in a state to run the sirens anymore, and as discouraging as that is, she doesn't feel the Despair grip her like it threatened so viciously during the final trial.

Credit goes where credit's due. Makoto has a disturbing amount of control over her, and it’s absolutely, bafflingly passive—he influences her mood, and her thoughts, just by virtue of being there. Even now as they’re together in the damp quiet of a midseason storm, her thoughts keep turning back to him.

_How sentimental,_ she thinks wryly, casting him a look. Makoto arches his eyebrows once he notices, questioning and sincere.

She only smiles, slightly, looking back out over the horizon.

“I hope you realize you have to take responsibility,” she says, cryptic as ever. Makoto blinks and gets to his feet to stand beside her, passing a hand through his eternally messy hair.

“I know,” he says, and she senses his grin without even having to look.

“Is that so? And what _do_ you know, Naegi-kun?”

There’s a beat as he tilts his head, and she can tell he’s pondering replies and choices and all manners of things. He tends to say either the exactly right thing or something slightly offbeat; it’s all very average and endearing and very much _him_.

His response, when it comes, is also very _him_.

“I know...that I have to keep doing my best. Everyone followed me out of the school because they believed me when I said there’s still hope out here...and there is,”

Kirigiri nods, placated enough by those words, but when he continues, she doesn’t know what to say.

“And…I have another responsibility. T-To _you_ , Kirigiri-san! If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have made it as far as I did, and I…I…” Whatever he intended to say drops out of the equation as his nerve deserts him, but that bashful smile says more than he intended. She’s silent, in response. “I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do together too.”

It’s a distorted echo of her own words, returned to sender stamped with his own nervous flair. She gives him a knowing, almost amused look before turning to the covered stairway. “We should get back before we’re missed,” she remarks, casual.

Makoto’s quick to agree, hurrying to catch up to her longer strides as they cross the roof. Kirigiri’s got one hand already on the guardrail when she pauses, forcing him to stop as well.

“Naegi-kun.”

“Uh—yeah, Kirigiri-san?”

She lifts her gaze to the clearing sky. “…The weather’s nice today.”

The smile he gives in reply is radiant.

**Author's Note:**

> *Takes place after DR but shortly before they ended up in the Future Foundation.
> 
> Written as a birthday--more like perfday am I right--gift for my amazing friend Ais! And on this day, the world was graced with wonder.


End file.
